Clebrity Night Shot

For whatever reason you may be throwing a house party, a loved one's birthday perhaps or maybe a new years eve celebration, the key to making your festivities a success is planning. For those throwing a house party for the first time, here are 5 top tips to make sure your party lives long in the memory.

1. Prepare
Prepare as much as possible in advance. If you're preparing food, choose dishes that you can create the day before and reheat or assemble on the day. Ensure you have plenty of ice available in the freezer and have stocked up with everything you need. The last thing you want to be doing on the day of the party is rushing around supermarkets and shops desperately trying to find quiche and cocktail sausages.

2. Keep it simple
Don't over-complicate things. Whether its decorations, drinks or food, keeping things simple will ensure you're not stressed out creating fancy food treats or giving your house a complete makeover and its almost certain your guests will appreciate whatever efforts you make.

3. Music
Of course you can't have a party without music but you don't want to have to to listen to 11 Simply Red songs in a row or have to be changing CD's every 45 minutes, so the best option is to load an iPod or cheap MP3 player with approximately one hundred songs - that's roughly six hours worth so should be plenty, and connect it to your hi-fi. This way you can just hit play and forget about it for the rest of the night. You know your guests best so choose a selection of music that you think everyone may enjoy and keep the songs upbeat. Avoid any unpleasant doorstep confrontations by warning your neighbours in advance that you will be having a party and agree with them a curfew when you will stop the music and stick to it.

4. Drinks
There's nothing like a bottle of beer or a glass or two of wine to help your guests relax and start to break the ice with one another. By all means provide a selection of beer and a few bottles of wine but unless you're feeling really extravagant don't feel that you should be providing drink for all of your guests all night. Just make it clear on the invites that guests are expected to bring their own bottles. Provide a number of bottle openers and corkscrews so there's always one to hand and your friends aren't hunting around trying to work out how to get the cork out of the bottle of Pinot Grigot with a screwdriver.

5. Keep things tidy
Provide plenty of paper napkins and a couple of large bins. This will make tidying up bottles and rubbish quick and easy. And as long as its clear where guests are expected to dispose of their empty bottles and paper plates, chances are people will mostly clean up after themselves. Move any valuable items or furniture out of the way to a room that is out of bounds to guest. It's inevitable there will be spillages and accidents, so the golden rule is if you don't want something to get damaged move it.

Follow these tips and your party is sure to be a success and a great time will be had all - including you the host!